Mentioned only in Luke, x, 38-42; and John, xi; xii, sqq. The Aramaic form occurs in a Nabatfan inscription found at Puteoli, and now in the Naples Museum; it is dated A.D. 5 (Corpus Inscr. Semit., 158); also in a Palmyrene inscription, where the Greek translation has the form Marthein, A.D. 179.

Mary, Martha, and Lazarus are represented by St. John as living at Bethania, but St. Luke would seem to imply that they were, at least at one time, living in Galilee; he does not mention the name of the town, but it may have been Magdala, and we should thus, supposing Mary of Bethania and Mary Magdalene to be the same person, understand the appellative "Magdalene". The words of St. John (xi, 1) seem to imply a change of residence for the family. It is possible, too, that St. Luke has displaced the incident referred to in c. x. The likeness between the pictures of Martha presented by Luke and John is very remarkable. The familiar intercourse between the Saviour of the world and the humble family which St. Luke depicts is dwelt on by St. John when he tells us that "Jesus loved Martha, and her sister Mary, and Lazarus" (xi, 5). Again the picture of Martha's anxiety (John, xi, 20-21, 39) accords with the picture of her who was "busy about much serving" (Luke, x, 40); so also in John, xii, 2: "They made him a supper there: and Martha served." But St. John has given us a glimpse of the other and deeper side of her character when he depicts her growing faith in Christ's Divinity (xi, 20-27), a faith which was the occasion of the words: "I am the resurrection and the life." The Evangelist has beautifully indicated the change that came over Martha after that interview: "When she had said these things, she went and called her sister Mary secretly, saying: The Master iscome, and calleth for thee."

Difficulties have been raised about the last supper at Bethania. St. John seems to put it six days before the Pasch, and, so some conclude, in the house of Martha; while the Synoptic account puts it two days before the Pasch, and in the house of Simon the Leper. We need not try to avoid this difficulty by asserting that there were two suppers; for St. John does not say that the supper took place six days before, but only that Christ arrived in Bethania six days before the Pasch; nor does he say that it was in the house of Martha. We are surely justified in arguing that, since St. Matthew and St. Mark place the scene in the house of Simon, St. John must be understood to say the same; it remains to beproved that Martha could not "serve" in Simon's house.

Monday, July 28, 2014

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis returned to the southern Italian city of Caserta on Monday for a private visit to the Pentecostal community known as the Evangelical Church of Reconciliation. The Pope first met the founder of the community, Pastor Giovanni Traettino, during his time as archbishop of Buenos Aires and over the past year he has met and received groups of Pentecostals at his Santa Marta residence here in the Vatican.After greeting the pastor and his family, Pope Francis was welcomed by over 200 Evangelicals who had travelled to Caserta from around Italy, as well as from the U.S. and South America.

Calling the Pope, my beloved brother, Rev Traettino said the Evangelical community was deeply grateful for the visit which would have been unthinkable until very recently. Many Evangelicals, he said, pray daily for the Pope and see his election as the work of the Holy Spirit.

Pardon and reconciliation were the themes at the heart of the Pope’s words as, to loud applause he asked forgiveness for the words and actions of Catholics who have persecuted Pentecostals in the past.

"…..Chiedo perdono per quelli Cattolici che non hanno capito…."

All of us are sinners, the Pope stressed, but all of us must continue to walk boldly in the presence of Our Lord. Quoting from St Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, Pope Francis spoke of the diversity of the Body of Christ but he stressed that diversity is reconciled to unity through the action of the Holy Spirit.

"…….così la Chiesa é una nella diversità….."

Following the encounter, Pope Francis then had lunch with members of the Pentecostal community in Caserta and is due to return by helicopter to the Vatican later this afternoon Shared from Radio Vaticana

Nezahualcoyotl - Agenzia Fides report - More than 5000 people marched with the Bishop of the diocese of Nezahualcóyotl, Mgr. Héctor Luis Morales Sánchez in favor of peace, life and family. The massive event, held yesterday July 27, started from three points of the city of Nezahualcoyotl, towards the center, and ended in the cathedral with a prayer vigil. The main reason, according to the note sent to Fides by the Diocese of Nezahualcoyotl, is the desire to publicly express the will and the commitment to promote and act effectively for life, for peace and for the family: "Considering that one cannot be insensitive or indifferent to the various situations that present themselves as serious problems in our diocese of Nezahualcoyotl and in society in general, we try to propose ways and solutions that are coherent with our principles, in the light of the Gospel", says the note. "We want to express together our right to demonstrate publicly that we are in favor of the values of life, of peace and of the family". The city of Nezahualcóyotl, on the outskirts of the capital Mexico City, home to more than 1200.000 people, in recent months has had to endure situations of great violence on the streets and in families. Since 2013, the city suffers kidnapping, extortion, extrajudicial executions, thefts, street violence, more than other cities in the country: all this before the authorities who, out of fear or corruption, are unable to stop social violence. The poorest people, note the local Church, are the first victims of this violence. According to data published by the newspaper "La Jornada" in Mexico, 62 people were killed every day in 2013. (CE) (Agenzia Fides 28/07/2014)

Monday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 401

Reading 1JER 13:1-11

The LORD said to me: Go buy yourself a linen loincloth;wear it on your loins, but do not put it in water.I bought the loincloth, as the LORD commanded, and put it on.A second time the word of the LORD came to me thus:Take the loincloth which you bought and are wearing,and go now to the Parath;there hide it in a cleft of the rock.Obedient to the LORD’s command, I went to the Parathand buried the loincloth.After a long interval, the LORD said to me:Go now to the Parath and fetch the loinclothwhich I told you to hide there.Again I went to the Parath, sought out and took the loinclothfrom the place where I had hid it.But it was rotted, good for nothing!Then the message came to me from the LORD:Thus says the LORD:So also I will allow the pride of Judah to rot,the great pride of Jerusalem.This wicked people who refuse to obey my words,who walk in the stubbornness of their hearts,and follow strange gods to serve and adore them,shall be like this loincloth which is good for nothing.For, as close as the loincloth clings to a man’s loins,so had I made the whole house of Israeland the whole house of Judah cling to me, says the LORD;to be my people, my renown, my praise, my beauty.But they did not listen.

Responsorial Psalm DT 32:18-19, 20, 21

R. (see 18a) You have forgotten God who gave you birth.You were unmindful of the Rock that begot you,You forgot the God who gave you birth.When the LORD saw this, he was filled with loathingand anger toward his sons and daughters.R. You have forgotten God who gave you birth.“I will hide my face from them,” he said,“and see what will then become of them.What a fickle race they are,sons with no loyalty in them!”R. You have forgotten God who gave you birth.“Since they have provoked me with their ‘no-god’and angered me with their vain idols,I will provoke them with a ‘no-people’;with a foolish nation I will anger them.”R. You have forgotten God who gave you birth.

Gospel MT 13:31-35

Jesus proposed a parable to the crowds.“The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seedthat a person took and sowed in a field.It is the smallest of all the seeds,yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants.It becomes a large bush,and the ‘birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.’”

He spoke to them another parable.“The Kingdom of heaven is like yeastthat a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flouruntil the whole batch was leavened.”

All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables.He spoke to them only in parables,to fulfill what had been said through the prophet:

I will open my mouth in parables,I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundationof the world.

Bishop and confessor, born in South Wales; died 28 July, 565 (?). The date of his birth is unknown. His parents whose names are given as Amon of Dyfed and Anna of Gwynedd, were of noble, but not royal, birth. While still an infant he was dedicated to God and entrusted to the care of St. Illtyd, by whom he was brought up in the monastery of Llantwit Major. He showed exceptional talents in his studies, and was eventually ordained deacon and priest by St. Dubric. After this he retired to another monastery, possibly after that on Caldy Island, to practise greater austerities, and some years later became it abbot. About this time some Irish monks who were returning from Rome happened to visit Samson's monastery. So struck was the abbot by their learning and sanctity that he accompanied them to Ireland, and there remained some time. During h is visit he received the submission of an Irish monastery, and, on his return to Wales, sent one of his uncles to act as its superior. His fame as a worker of miracles now attracted so much attention that he resolved to found a new monastery or cell "far from the haunts of men", and accordingly retired with a few companions to a lonely spot on the banks of the Severn. He was soon discovered, however, and forced by his fellow-countrymen to become abbot of the monastery formerly ruled by St. Germanus; here St. Dubric consecrated him bishop but without appointment to any particular see. Now, being warned by an angel, he determined to leave England and, after some delay, set sail for Brittany. He landed near Dol, and there built a monastery which became the centre of his episcopal work in the district. Business taking him to Paris, he visited King Childebert there, and was nominated by him as Bishop of Dol; Dol, however, did not become a regular episcopal see till about the middle of the ninth century. Samson attained the age of 85 years, and was buried at Dol. Several early lives of Samson exist. The oldest, printed by Mabillon in his "Acta Sanctorum" from a manuscript at Cîteaux, and again by the Bollandists, claims to be compiled from information derived from Samson's contemporaries, which would refer it to about 600. Dom Plaine in the "Analecta Bollandiana" has edited another and fuller life (from manuscript Andeg., 719), which he regards as earlier than Mabillon's. Later lives are numerous.

(189-198 or 199), date of birth unknown. The "Liber Pontificalis" makes him a native of Africa and gives his father the name of Felix. This authority, taking the "Liberian Catalogue" as its basis, gives the years 186-197 as the period of Victor's episcopate. The Armenian text of the "Chronicle" of Eusebius (Leipzig, 1911, p. 223) places the beginning of Victor's pontificate in the seventh year of the reign of the Emperor Commodus (180-87) and gives it a duration of twelve years; in his "Church History" (V, xxxii, ed. Schwarts, Leipzig, 1902, p. 486) Eusebius transfers the beginning of the pontificate to the tenth year of the reign of Commodus and makes it last ten years. During the closing years of the reign of Commodus (180-192) and the early years of Septimius Severus (from 193) the Roman Church enjoyed in general great external peace. The favourable opinion of the Christians held by Commodus is ascribed to the influence of a woman named Marcia. According to the testimony of Hippolytus ("Philosophumena", IX, 12) she had been brought up by the presbyter Hyacinthus, was very favourably inclined towards the Christians, perhaps even a Christian herself (Hippolytus, loc. cit., calls her philotheos God-loving). One day she summoned Pope Victor to the imperial palace and asked for a list of the Roman Christians who had been condemned to forced labour in the mines of Sardinia, so that she might obtain their freedom. The pope handed her the list and Marcia, having received from the emperor the required pardon, sent the presbyter Hyacinthus to Sardinia with an order of release for the Christian confessors. Callistus, afterwards pope, who had been among those deported, did not return to Rome, but remained at Antium, where he received a monthly pension from the Roman Christians. Irenaeus ("Adv. Haerses", IV, xxx, 1) points out that Christians were employed at this period as officials of the imperial Court. Among these officials was the imperial freedman Prosenes, whose gravestone and epitaph have been preserved (De Rossi, "Inscriptiones christ. urbis Romae", I, 9, no. 5). Septimius Severus, also, during the early years of his reign, regarded the Christians kindly, so that the influence of Christian officials continued. The emperor retained in his palace a Christian named Proculus who had once cured him. He protected Christian men and women of rank against the excesses of the heathen rabble, and his son Caracalla had a Christian wet nurse (Tertullian, "Ad Scapulam", IV). Christianity made great advances in the capital and also found adherents among the families who were distinguished for wealth and noble descent (Eusebius, "Hist. eccl.", V, xxi).

Internal dissensions during this era affected the Church at Rome. The dispute over the celebration of Easter . . . grew more acute. The Christians at Rome, who had come from the province of Asia, were accustomed to observe Easter on the 14th day of Nisan, whatever day of the week that date might happen to fall on, just as they had done at home. This difference inevitably led to trouble when it appeared in the Christian community of Rome. Pope Victor decided, therefore, to bring about unity in the observance of the Easter festival and to persuade the Quartodecimans to join in the general practice of the Church. He wrote, therefore, to Bishop Polycrates of Ephesus and induced the latter to call together the bishops of the province of Asia in order to discuss the matter with them. This was done; but in the letter sent by Polycrates to Pope Victor he declared that he firmly held to the Quartoceciman custom observed by so many celebrated and holy bishops of that region. Victor called a meeting of Italian bishops at Rome, which is the earliest Roman synod known. He also wrote to the leading bishops of the various districts, urging them to call together the bishops of their sections of the country and to take counsel with them on the question of the Easter festival. Letters came from all sides: from the synod in Palestine, at which Theophilus of Caesarea and Narcissus of Jerusalem presided; from the synod of Pontus over which Palmas as the oldest presided; from the communities in Gaul whose bishop of Irenaeus of Lyons; from the bishops of the Kingdom of Osrhoene; also from individual bishops, as Bakchylus of Corinth. These letters all unanimously reported that Easter was observed on Sunday.. Victor, who acted throughout the entire matter as the head of Catholic Christendom, now called upon the bishops of the province of Asia to abandon their custom and to accept the universally prevailing practice of always celebrating Easter on Sunday. In case they would not do this he declared they would be excluded from the fellowship of the Church.

This severe procedure did not please all the bishops. Irenaeus of Lyons and others wrote to Pope Victor; they blamed his severity, urged him to maintain peace and unity with the bishops of Asia, and to entertain affectionate feelings toward them. Irenaeus reminded him that his predecessors had indeed always maintained the Sunday observance of Easter, as was right, but had not broken off friendly relations and communion with bishops because they followed another custom (Eusebius, "Hist. eccl.", V, xxiii-xxv.) We have no information concerning the further course of the matter under Victor I so far as it regards the bishops of Asia. All that is known is that in the course of the third century the Roman practice in the observance of Easter became gradually universal. In Rome itself, where Pope Victor naturally enforced the observance of Easter on Sunday by all Christians in the capital, an Oriental named Blastus, with a few followers, opposed the pope and brought about a schism, which, however, did not grow in importance (Eusebius, loc. cit., B, xx). Pope Victor also had difficulties with a Roman priest named Florinus, who probably came from Asia Minor. As an official of the imperial court, Florinus had become acquainted in Asia Minor with St. Polycarp, and later was a presbyter of the Roman Church. He fell into the Gnostic heresy and defended the false learning of Valentine. St. Irenaeus wrote two treatises against him: "On the Monarchy [of God] and that God is not the Author of Evil", and "On the Ogdoad". Irenaeus also called Victor's attention to the dangerous writings of Florinus, who was probably degraded from his priestly functions by the pope and expelled from the Church (Eusebius, "Hist. eccl.", V, xv, 20).

During the pontificate of Victor a rich Christian, Theodotus the Leather-seller, came from Constantinople to Rome and taught false doctrines concerning Christ, Whom he declared to be merely a man endowed by the Holy Ghost, at baptism, with supernatural power. The pope condemned this heresy and excluded Theodotus from the Church. The latter, however, would not submit, but, together with his adherents, formed a schismatic party, which maintained itself for a time at Rome. Victor may also have come into contact with the Montanists. Tertullian reports ("Ad Praceam", 1) that a Roman bishop, whose name he does not give, had declared his acceptance of the prophecies of Montanus, but had been persuaded by Praxeas to withdraw. Duchesne ("Histoire ancienne de l'église", I, 278) and others think Tertullian means Pope Eleutherius, but many investigators consider it more probable that he meant Pope Victor, because the latter had had much to do with the inhabitants of Asia Minor, and because, between 190 and 200, Praceas had gone from Rome to Carthage, where he was opposed by Tertullian. The question cannot be decided positively

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Pope appeals for peace in Middle East, Iraq and Ukraine after his Angelus address

27/07/2014

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Sunday made another urgent appeal for an end to the conflicts in the Middle East, in Iraq and in Ukraine. Speaking after his regular Angleus address to thousands of people gathered in a hot and sunny St Peter’s Square, the Pope spoke of the victims of war, in particular the children who die or are injured and orphaned by the violence…FOR BREAKING NEWS, INSPIRATIONAL STORIES AND FREE MOVIESLIKE http://facebook.com/catholicnewsworld

“….bambini morti, bambini feriti, bambini mutilate….”

I think especially, the Pope said, of the children whose hopes for a dignified future are taken from them, dead children, injured and mutilated children, orphans and children who have bits of weapons as toys, children who don’t know how to smile. Please stop, the Pope pleaded, I ask you with all my heart…..

“…..Ve lo chiedo con tutto il cuore….Fermatevi, per favore!”Pope Francis urged all those listening to his words to continue joining him in prayer that God might grant to the peoples and leaders in the Middle East, in Iraq and in Ukraine the wisdom and strength to pursue the path of peace with determination and to face each dispute with the force of dialogue and reconciliation. Every decision, he said, must not be based on particular interests but on the common good and on respect for each person. Remember, the Pope said, that all is lost with war and nothing is lost with peace.

Pope Francis also noted that Monday marks the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First Word War which caused millions of victims and vast destruction. This conflict, he said, which the Pope of that time, Benedict XV, called a "senseless slaughter", resulted, after four long years, in a very fragile peace. Tomorrow, the Pope said, as we remember this tragic event, I hope that the mistakes of the past won’t be repeated, but that the lessons of history will be taken into account, so that peace always prevails through patient and courageous dialogue.

Before reciting the Angelus prayer, Pope Francis reflected on the day’s Gospel reading from St Matthew which tells the parables of the Kingdom of Heaven as a mustard seed, a hidden treasure or a pearl of great price. Those who come to know Jesus, by reading the Bible, he said, understand that the Kingdom of Heaven is indeed the greatest treasure which changes lives and gives meaning to everything we do. Urging his listeners to always keep a portable copy of the Gospels with them and read from it each day, the Pope said the joy of a Christian who has discovered this treasure is evident as each word and each gesture will show forth the love that God has given us through his son, Jesus Christ.